Well, well, things are moving fast on the Midwestern front! Early this morning a press release went out announcing that Reed Expositions and Lucasfilms were partnering for Celebration V, the occasional all things Star Wars convention thrown in the past by Lucasfilms on its own. The date? August 12-15, 2010 in Orlando.

The same date as…the Wizard World Chicago Comic-Con!

Mere hours later, a press release from Gareb Shamus ‘s troops sallied forth:

Gareb Shamus, CEO of Wizard Entertainment, has made the decision to move Chicago’s largest and longest running Comic Con, to the following week, August 19-22, 2010 due to the recent announcement of Star Wars Celebration.

“We respect our 20 year relationship with LucasFilms and everything Star Wars has meant to the fan community. In deference to our attendees, guests and friends at Lucas, we are changing dates. We are all fans of the Star Wars films, and this slight change enables us to bring the type of presence the fans would expect at our annual Comic Con,” Shamus says.

This move enables everyone who comes to Chicago to still get a taste of one of their favorite franchises.

Tickets will start at $25 and will be on sale soon.


As Con Wars correspondents will note, Reed and Shamus have been engaged in an escalating game of chicken with show dates. Reed planned a show in Chicago — C2E2 — so Shamus planned a show in Anaheim the same weekend, then announced the date for next years Big Apple Con as the exact same weekend as Reed’s New York Comic-Con. In addition, the Toronto Comic-Con was announced for the same weekend as the Reed-partnered Pax East.

The move of the Chicago date is the first significant retreat in the fray — Shamus’s pop culture shows rely heavily on actors from the Star Wars universe, whether it’s the usual Chewie, Darth, and Boba to a legion of female Jedi who never had any lines but did get action figures, to the little person who played Ewok Mub Mub Wubbins.*

The date moves one week closer to the Baltimore Comic-Con, however, which already had to move to an August date to avoid the looming fall crush of shows.

1 COMMENT

  1. How many shows does Wizard own now? It seems like there are enough that it might be hard *not* to conflict with one.

    Or is this just a trick of memory, and do they not own that many?